Rogue Creative Impulses

So y'all know what I'm MEANT to be doing right now, yes? I have my second Cozy Mystery to get written and I've been plugging away, but it's going SLOWLY. Now slow for me isn't bad in some people's book—500-1000 words a day. But for the time I'm putting in, normally I'd be at about a 1500 word a day pace. I've got a ton of details, but it just isn't catching its groove (gunna kill somebody tonight and see if that helps).

Then, Sunday night getting out of the tub... I was pondering... what was I pondering?... 'catchy', I think... I was thinking about how Kahlotus Disposal Site is a higher level of main idea than my other books. I don't know that it is a better story. Yet. But there is something to be said for high concept, yes?

So I'm drying off and it HITS ME... this... IDEA... I go in the kitchen, drink my fiber (yeah, don't ask... keeps me from getting grouchy, ifyouknowwhatImean) and this idea keeps NAGGING... more detail... so I head back in to brush my teeth and sit down to jot all the details in my notebook...

I wake up DREAMING the dumb thing! Sheesh (talk about persistent)... by the time I got out of the shower, I had the dialog for the whole first scene... in 20 minutes I got 450 words on the computer... and it's been bugging me all day! Blasted kids! (and no, I don't mean Cabritos, though cabritos is a good word, isn't it... it is the LITERAL translation of kids... you know... baby goats... but I digress... HUZZAH! Man, it's been too long since I digressed)

But my POINT (yes, I have one), is my creativity will not behave!!!



My Obligations

I HAVE to get this cozy writtten. I know myself well enough to know the FINISHED draft will be better for sitting time, and if it is DUE in September and I work backwards through: my edit, smoothing, beta reading, edit, smoothing, beta reading, edit smoothing, AGENT reading and polishing, then I need to get BACK to this by MAY, and with my rule for sitting, that means I need to be DONE by April...

erm... did I mention this isn't happening? I have about 12,000 words at the moment. For a first draft that is maybe 20% Possibly closer to 15%. At 12,000 words a week, I am 5 weeks out, and 12,000 is closer to normal pace than what I'm writing.

My editor has also requested some changes on the first cozy... not huge, but they have repercussions through the book, so there will have to be a full read. I promised them by the end of April (intending to do them in that 'sitting time'. So I really HAVE to keep that 12,000 word a week pace to have 2 weeks for these OTHER changes. ACK!

Strategy

For a week or two, I am going to try a carrot thing with the new one... I GET to do that for a little while each night if I first do the OTHER for a certain number of words... I may do reverse order... I know that sounds wonky, but normally before I write, I do a SUDOKU to get my mind off my day and into writing mode, but this new story, I think is strong enough to pull me in without the detour... I will let you know how it goes.


Any of you ever get captured by the pernicious creativity bug when you were obliged on something else?